Apr 01, 11 at 12:52amGolden Miru warrior

From Emmy Award-winning executive producers Greg Daniels (NBC's "The Office," "King of the Hill") and Michael Schur (NBC's "The Office," "Saturday Night Live") comes a new mockumentary that looks at the exciting world of local government. The new half-hour comedy will examine the mundane but necessary ways that people interact with their government, and ask why it's frequently so complicated -- as everyone knows from standing in line at the DMV, applying for home construction permits, or trying to get the city to fix a pothole.

The documentary cameras follow Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler, NBC's "Saturday Night Live," "Baby Mama") a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana. In an attempt to beautify her town -- and advance her career -- Leslie takes on what should be a fairly simple project: help local nurse Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones, NBC's "The Office," "Unhitched") turn an abandoned construction pit into a community park. Opposing them are defensive bureaucrats, selfish neighbors, real estate developers, and single-issue fanatics -- whose weapons are lawsuits, the jumble of city codes, and the very democratic process that Leslie loves so much.

Leslie is alternately helped and undermined by her colleague, Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari, "Human Giant," "Scrubs"), who cheerfully exploits his government position for personal gain. She is also thwarted by her boss Ron Swanson, who is philosophically opposed to government in any form.

Helping Leslie and Ann navigate the Pawnee bureaucracy is charismatic city planner Mark Brendanawicz, whose outlook has been soured by 15 years of public service.

If they can pull it off, Leslie hopes that she also will have inspired her uninterested college intern April (Aubrey Plaza, "Mayne Street") and April's whole generation - all the while moving one step closer to her ultimate goal: becoming the first female president of the United States.

A couple things have changed since someone wrote that description between seasons one and two, and Mark is out with new characters from Rob Lowe and Adam Scott in his stead.

I watched the pilot after The Office a couple years ago and was skeptical; the six episode first season is trying way too much to emulate The Office and doesn't know what to do with its lead character. Starting at the second season premiere, things started to ease into being better and it started to see huge improvements. I would recommend jumping in at 2x01. Season three is currently airing and has been great.

This show has everything that I loved about The Office in its prime and is the strongest heir to funniest workplace show on TV.

IcarusAbides

Last week NBC announced they had cancelled Welcome To The Family and that’s fine. Mike O’Malley will always have Glee money. But the network announced today that they will be filling the 8pm hour for the next three Thursdays with The Voice’s Battle Rounds. That means we won’t get the Parks & Recreation Halloween episode, we won’t get Tatiana Maslany’s episode and we WON’T GET TO SEE ADAM SCOTT DRESSED AS THE DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS. At least not for awhile. Excuse me while I go burn everything. Never fall in love with a TV show. It only leads to pain.

TVLine reports NBC will air back-to-back episodes of "Parks And Recreation" on Thursday, Nov. 14 and 21.

I'm even going to post the gif they used because it's just extremely apt:

Jul 31, 13 at 5:07pm

Golden Miru warrior

I love Rashida forever... this is good news in my mind though. It'll leave room for the show to grow into a late series (season six and onward) groove and let Rashida do movie parts, which she really excels at. Sometimes I've had to look away because Chris' depression is so glaring. I think this can mean a happy ending/future for both of them.

Hyped for this show's return like no other obviously.

Jul 31, 13 at 2:43pm

IcarusAbides

Parks and Recreation’s on-again/off-again relationship between Rob Lowe’s Chris Traeger and Rashida Jones’ Ann Perkins will be coming to a head this season: because the two actors will be leaving the beloved NBC comedy.

Sources have confirmed Lowe’s and Jones’ departures, which will take place in the show’s 13th episode (likely landing during February sweeps). The season ended with Chris and Ann continuing to try to have a baby together — let’s assume that plot will help usher the two out of Pawnee under happy circumstances.

I like both characters a lot but Ann hasn't really been integral to any plots for a while and it's felt like they've had to shoehorn her in to other story lines just to get here in there. I thought they could have gotten some more out of Chris but his character kind of hasn't grown that much through the series and the standard Chris likes fitness and is happy jokes have become a bit repetitive.

May 11, 13 at 3:28am

KingC

Parks was back on form this season. Lost its way in season 3 and i wasnt expecting much but i have to say its been great. I hope it has got another series, as i have Ron withdrawals atm.

May 11, 13 at 12:41am

nathan

season finale was awesome, AND renewed for another season!!

Apr 18, 13 at 2:36pm

Golden Miru warrior

Patton FTW. That's a lot of views. I hope they put out a director's cut of tonight's episode with this whole shot included because that was perfect.

Oct 26, 12 at 1:16pm

Golden Miru warrior

Ah, this is probably the only comedy I really need. Watched the producer's cut of "Halloween Surprise" so may be referencing things not everyone saw.

I think it helped that all the people surrounding Ben Wyatt in the world of greater politics were ridiculous. Even the white-suited Florida businessmen, his boat, and the story of how a 'dick-biting gator can just fall right into your lap.' Kathryn Hahn is too funny for so little screen time, ah well. Even last week with the robotic congressman they successfully propelled into office. He may be good at his job, but he doesn't have to believe in the candidate. I think that's where Leslie comes in. Besides the whole Greatest Love of All thing they're really a package deal and are likely to ride that far beyond city council in the immediate future. What that means for how the cast will hold together, time will tell I suppose.

Also, Chris Traeger and Tom and even I guess Ann all have hugely depressing lives sometimes and the show just keeps it funny. No easy feat. At least Tom has a business idea that could actually work with all of his super expensive living swag.

Not its best episode ever I'd say, but includes one of its strongest moments for sure.

Enjoyable through and through this week. Tom knows nothing about basketball, Leslie and April get a hilarious, realistic, effective garbagewoman storyline, Ron gets to be uncomfortable and yell I LOVE NOTHING while Ann does her thing. And Chris wasn't a total sad sack. Probably the best one in a while.

This message was merged with other messages by Golden Miru warrior (moderator)

Oct 26, 12 at 12:36pm

Loki

Well, that ending made me feel like a little girl.<3

Oct 21, 12 at 8:47am

Golden Miru warrior

It also let him talk about how he uses it at length, which was totally more effective than just seeing him furnish a tent while camping or a business like E720.

I hadn't seen the recent Office ep to make the connection... would never have given NBC credit for cross promoting something non-product (though maybe they took a bunch of funding from some influence group).